LIVE FEEDS
A security guard’s booth at the newly restored Ikhtiaruddin citadel, 2010. Photograph: Simon Norfolk
Constructing Worlds at the Barbican review – how photography fell in love with architecture
Constructing Worlds begins with Berenice Abbott’s iconic Night View, New York, 1932, a black and white image of illuminated skyscrapers taken from the top of the Empire State Building. Abbott’s evocation of an almost magical modernist metropolis echoes though the entire exhibition, which ranges from 1932 to 2011, but her way of seeing was influenced by Eugène Atget, whose studies of a much older city, Paris, so captivated her that she acquired most of his archive on his death in 1927.
Gehry brings his Bilbao effect to Panama
Brightly coloured tin roofs are ubiquitous across Panama, and served as inspiration for this, Frank Gehry’s first Latin American project. The Biomuseo is his new museum dedicated to biodiversity, which gets its official opening at the start of October. However, locals can already enjoy the building’s exterior, on the Pacific shores of the capital, Panama Bay. It positively bursts with colour. Beneath the angular metal canopies is a semi-exposed atrium, and an outdoor exhibition space. According to the museum, the colour canopies bring to mind a local, vernacular style of colourful metal roofing, as well as “Panama’s spectacular neo-tropical habitat,” and they’re practical too, providing effective shelter during the rainy season.
Innovative Guerilla Art Installation Stops Londoners in Their Tracks
Celebrated street art pioneer Dan Witz is collaborating with PETA on a new campaign which seeks to bring attention to the billions of animals who are confined and killed for their flesh every year. “Empty the Cages” brings together the powerful elements of street art, social media and QR code technology to create a profound experience for viewers. The new project consists of dozens of pieces of art that use Witz’s signature trompe l’œil and photorealism which are being placed around London.
Love me do John Lennon painting still waiting for buyer
The painting, made in 1958 when Lennon was studying at Liverpool College of Art, was even described by the auction house as “unflattering”
Despite much publicity, the first self-portrait to be painted by John Lennon went unsold at auction this month. The painting, made in 1958 when Lennon was studying at Liverpool College of Art, was offered on 14 September by Cooper Owen, an entertainment and music memorabilia specialist in London, and carried a £3m estimate. The work was made in the same year that Lennon, who went on to legendary fame with The Beatles, met his first wife, Cynthia. His mother was also killed in 1958.
Beware Wet Paint: The ICA’s latest ambitious exhibition
Painting, its demise and its resurrection have been the subject of debate in the contemporary art world for many years. When a show purporting to be about the best new painters worldwide opens tomorrow at the ICA in London, will there be celebrations all round? Will there be new discoveries and relief that the old masters stand the test of time? Well, sadly, no. Beware Wet Paint is an ambitious idea, hampered by the constraints of its location, too small for the striving natures of its participants.
Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst share their ‘shelfies’ for London Art Book Fair
Books have been important to artists as an artistic medium and rich source of inspiration for centuries. You have only to look at examples such as the Book of Kells or William Blake’s illustrated book Songs of Innocence and Experience. Books deliver a microcosm of the artists’ work and through the writings of those who know and are passionate about art, we can better understand it. They are also beautiful objects.
